My cat tore up my Virtual Dynamics Power 3...

[OverlordXenu]

Originally Posted by subtle

Judging from his replies earlier in this thread, this whole thing is starting to make a lot more sense now.

I've been researching Grado threads quite extensively since I arrived here and that guy had such a lack of tact and a annoying ability to pop up in almost every single one of them with a Grado jab. That avatar he used was most annoying as well.

Looking at the join date for AC's profile, coupled with the time Matt was banned, I'd say it's just way too coincidental for it not to be him.

Considering his location is Ottawa, and he is posting about gaming mice, it is him. (I know him from another forum, for a gaming "clan," under another user name, and yes, he is just as immature there as on here. He was/is actually banned from there.)

[Tech2]

Originally Posted by draudio

Hello Everybody, I am Rick Schultz, President of Virtual Dynamics.

First of all, Virtual Dynamics is owned by another one of my companies but Virtual dynamics is my main business.

It was brought to my attention that my presence would be welcomed and maybe even appreciated, so here I am.

I’ve made a pretty strict rule over the last 6 years about staying far away from forums but I have to hand it to Jude and all you guys here at Head-Fi because I do think this is a wonderful and profitable place for audiophiles to come and hang out in their spare time.

I have read through and enjoyed quite a few chuckles, as I watch the arguments and banter and the comedic spin that is ever present in these forums.

Virtual Dynamics recently authorized a new young salesperson Matt Carter, to have the opportunity to come and share his thoughts on the Head-Fi forums. Matt has been with us for about 3 months, and I must say, the young fella really grows on you.

Some of the questions that have been brought up in the forum as I have read through question the legitimacy and accuracy of information that are in the audio forums here at Head-Fi, placed by Matt. Matt has had the opportunity to pretty much discuss as he pleases. My biggest rule for Matt was “do not comment on other manufacturers products.” There has been a few exceptions, and all of them okayed by me.

There has however been some mis-information. Not on purpose, by any means. If you know Matt, you would know that he is deeply concerned with credibility, quality and what people think. I on the other hand, am only really concerned with the first two. I will let what people think be up to them.

The only information, as I read through very briefly, that I thought was relevant or important and would require my attention is one topic, but before I address it I want to clarify that forums are what forums are, they are a place for people to play as well as learn. The learning can sometimes be highly impeded due to the fact that play is a heck of a lot more fun, and definitely more common.

For anyone reading an audio forum, and wondering about the legitimacy of anything that is said I would have to question the sanity of that. Not to pick on anyone, but as you read through you can see the wide variations of what people are saying they perceive as truth.

We are an audio cable manufacturer, at least on the surface, because our products are designed to replace conventional audio cabling product. But from day one I would have hoped that people looking at our product could see that our ideas are very different.

Commonly people in forums argue about the legitimacy of cables, and whether or not they could make a difference. To be honest, this is not an argument I care to get into. I’m only interested in those who are interested in finding out, and clearly not everybody is.

Where I feel the need to come and speak with you is that I know that Matt had shared at one point in time that Virtual Dynamics was struggling and that that was the reason why we were giving away cables and creating sales. As Matt was quite new with us, in his defense, I realize first he panicked, as a young fella might, and second I think maybe it might have been Matt’s perspective, because what is struggling? If struggling means you don’t have office walls, and your business doesn’t have a million dollars in the account, or for that matter even a hundred thousand just sitting there as backup, then yep, we’re struggling, however in 2007 Virtual Dynamics broke 1 million dollars in sales. Out of the one million in sales Virtual Dynamics did profit about 20% over our production costs.

So, are we struggling? No struggling is when you lose money, we have been doing this for 6 years and business is profitable. I might note that business must be profitable or what is the point?

So, I think we did quite well, but it also means so did you. After I pay my business expenses, insurance, people products ect., when I sell you a cable for a hundred dollars, I make, on average, 20 dollars of real profit after expenses. It means my business is successful enough to stay around, grow and you are only paying a very reasonable markup when you buy from Virtual Dynamics. But what do we do with our profits?

Well, last year pretty much every penny went back in to try to further develop our products and further expand our services.

To continue to be competitive and offer even more value to our customers I put my money where my heart is, Virtual Dynamics and High-End audio. So how did Matt get the perspective that we were hurting? Well in December we did 160 thousand dollars in sales in approximately 3 weeks, we were a humming machine with an 8-10 week backorder on our products.

January is usually very strong months for sales, but it was much slower, and resounding off our Virtual Dynamic’s walls you could hear a little the sounds of disappointment from me to our sales department that things were slow.

Perspective, I guess as a sales person when your boss is hounding you to make it happen it may communicate exactly what Matt communicated to you, because even as my sales person the financial part of my business is none of his business, is it?

Let’s hope for audio’s sake that companies thrive and do well. When I see a company in high-end audio who builds a good product that I like to listen to I reward them with my purchases and my hope that they do well. I used to try real hard to get the best deal I could possibly get, but now I’m starting to realize, because I am on the other side of the fence, that this is not beneficial all the time.

Audio, specifically high-end audio, is a luxury product. Buy only what you can afford to spend on your hobby, and guys it is a hobby. How much you spend on your audio system has nothing to do with who you are.

I think the only reason that a person should spend more money on their audio system is if they enjoy the hobby of listening, have enough expendable cash to put towards the hobby, won’t harm anybody in their household by doing it, or deprive them of their wants and needs, especially our wives and children, and are not so addicted to it that it is all they talk about or do. I have met a few who, like I have been in the past, needed to spend some “dry out” time.

If all of these things are in place and you feel assured that the money that you spend will increase your enjoyment of listening to music, then please, all of us as audio manufacturers welcome you to come and talk with us. But if you really have a question about Virtual Dynamics, and it’s important to you to know that we will give you a real honest effort without any play then call us, or email us. Forums are not the place to get serious.

One last thing, to be on topic finally, you have a beautiful cat. I am sorry that he tore up your Power Three and if you wish we will replace it for you under warrantee. Do Power Threes cost a billion dollars? No. But we do hope that you will find, regardless of what you think of the cable when looking at the particles that have likely ruined your floor, your vacuum, and maybe our reputation with you, we built a nice affordable product that increases the enjoyment of listening to music far more than its modest price. All in all, I am very proud of my Power Three.

If you knew the heart and care that goes into every one of our products you might realize when I saw the picture of the torn up power three, my heart sank just a little. Each of these is handcrafted with care, patience and attention. It’s because of this, my love of the product, that I really would love to help you and replace it for you.

Have fun, and enjoy chatting with Matt.

I am truly flabbergasted by your response. I cannot believe that you have actually rationalized the insulting behavior of your rep by downplaying the significance of this forum and it's membership.

Yours is the type of company that will never see a single penny of my money. Now, I'm sure that will not have much effect on your company's bottom line, but trust me, I am likely not the only member here that feels this way. All things being equal in a cable purchasing decision and your company loses the sale because of the actions of the 'young fella' and your defense of his insulting 'banter'.

Good luck with your company.

You have zero credibility in my eyes.

[draudio]

Hey guys,

After all my thoughts earlier I realized one more thing that I should share with you all. I am not like other businesspeople. Some, of course, but I don't try to model myself after anybody else. When I first started off in high-end audio and tried some forms myself I ended up saying a lot of silly things, in fact some downright stupid things that I regret.

Fact is, I was in the middle of learning, or maybe the beginning, how to become a decent loving person.

I had a lot of people that I didn't even expect would want to harm a hair on my head tell me that they would like to do just that, saying they would never buy from me, ect. ect. Partly because I acted immaturely, but I grew up. I continue to grow, and I have changed. The judging of people that I once had I realize now is not something I want in my life.

So, if you wonder why Matt would not get fired it's because I care about him pretty much like a son. He'll make mistakes, he'll screw up, he'll say things he shouldn't but he'll learn. If I can bring anything to high-end audio and all I bring is to help one person I will have considered myself a great success.

I realize that some of you will never do business with me, or Matt, for various reasons, but I do the best I can to be a decent person and that is what I ask of my staff. In order to truly judge a person you must know them well enough to know their heart. In my experience, and I've tried to have lots of it when it comes to making friends, once you get to know that heart judging is far behind you.

I would leave you with this one thought. One that was used on me.

If you have never screwed up, said something inappropriate, rubbed someone the wrong way, or crossed somebody unintentionally you'd be the first one I've met, and you're a whole lot better person than I.

Matt will make mistakes again in the future,but as long as he keeps on trying as hard as he is and remains true to what I have seen of his heart he has a job at Virtual Dynamics. So I think fellas, you might be stuck with the boy.

-Rick

[Tech2]

Originally Posted by draudio

Hey guys,

After all my thoughts earlier I realized one more thing that I should share with you all. I am not like other businesspeople. Some, of course, but I don't try to model myself after anybody else. When I first started off in high-end audio and tried some forms myself I ended up saying a lot of silly things, in fact some downright stupid things that I regret.

Fact is, I was in the middle of learning, or maybe the beginning, how to become a decent loving person.

I had a lot of people that I didn't even expect would want to harm a hair on my head tell me that they would like to do just that, saying they would never buy from me, ect. ect. Partly because I acted immaturely, but I grew up. I continue to grow, and I have changed. The judging of people that I once had I realize now is not something I want in my life.

So, if you wonder why Matt would not get fired it's because I care about him pretty much like a son. He'll make mistakes, he'll screw up, he'll say things he shouldn't but he'll learn. If I can bring anything to high-end audio and all I bring is to help one person I will have considered myself a great success.

I realize that some of you will never do business with me, or Matt, for various reasons, but I do the best I can to be a decent person and that is what I ask of my staff. In order to truly judge a person you must know them well enough to know their heart. In my experience, and I've tried to have lots of it when it comes to making friends, once you get to know that heart judging is far behind you.

I would leave you with this one thought. One that was used on me.

If you have never screwed up, said something inappropriate, rubbed someone the wrong way, or crossed somebody unintentionally you'd be the first one I've met, and you're a whole lot better person than I.

Matt will make mistakes again in the future,but as long as he keeps on trying as hard as he is and remains true to what I have seen of his heart he has a job at Virtual Dynamics. So I think fellas, you might be stuck with the boy.

-Rick

Oh, I've screwed up plenty, insulted people, and done things that I've regretted, for sure. But if I was ever confronted about it and it was truly inadvertent, I've always apologized for, not defended, my actions.

[Sovkiller]

Originally Posted by IPodPJ

Rick,

Thank you for coming and posting your honest feelings. While I disagree with some of what you've stated, I personally appreciate it and I'm sure others do as well. You guys make excellent sounding cables & cords, and I (as well as others, I'm sure) only wish to know that your customer service and marketing methods are held to the same high standards.

You are simply incredible

We all were expecting all this time for someone with knowledge enough, and a respectable position from VD to show up, and explain all the claims, and some of the theory behind those cables, and maybe some of the why's, even more now after seeing what they actually use to make them in those pictures posted. Then while the owner of the company shows up, and rather of explaining all those doubts, that many of us, old and new members of this forum, have been wondering for years, about them, he simply instead wrote two pages of pure marketing, and on top try to justify what in the eyes of many members, was a very inappropriate conduct of one of their reps against other members, some of you still applaud that guy, and encourage him to keep on doing the same???

Sorry but some of you are simply incredible guys!!!...I'm speechless...

[IPodPJ]

Originally Posted by Tech2

Oh, I've screwed up plenty, insulted people, and done things that I've regretted, for sure. But if I was ever confronted about it, and it was truly inadvertent, I've always apologized for my actions rather than defended them.

x2. We all make mistakes and continue to learn from them. But what separates wisdom and maturity from ignorance and immaturity is the ability to recognize the criticism people offer you and apply it to your persona. If just one person is telling you that your behavior may be inappropriate, consider what has been said to you. If the whole lot of people are telling you the same thing then you really need to take it to heart and adjust your attitude.

[kpeezy]

Originally Posted by Sovkiller

You guys are incredible

We all were expecting all this time for someone with knowledge enough, and a respectable position from VD to show up, and explain all the claims, and some of the theory behind those cables, and maybe some of the why's, even more now after seeing what they actually use to make them in those pictures posted. Then while the owner of the company shows up, and rather of explaining all those doubts, that many of us, old and new members of this forum, have been wondering for years, about them, he simply instead wrote two pages of pure marketing, and on top try to justify what in the eyes of many members, was a very inappropriate conduct of one of their reps against other members, some of you still applaud that guy, and encourage him to keep on doing the same???

Sorry but some of you are simply incredible!!!...I'm speechless...

Preach it.

[IPodPJ]

Originally Posted by Sovkiller

Sorry but some of you are simply incredible!!!...I'm speechless...

Don't say "some of you." Please have the decency to address me by my name rather than a vague insinuation if you have an issue with my opinions. Are you forgetting that I brought up the issue that he came here to comment on in the first place?

If that's the way Rick feels, that's the way he feels. You can't drive a stake through his heart because of it. I appreciate him taking the time to show up and address us directly, but I don't condone the responsibility he seems to feel for an employee (in sales) that shows disrespect to members of a forum that they are a sponsor of. Obviously they have left a bad taste in many people's mouths and their potential sales will suffer from it. But if that's how they want to conduct business, nothing we have said or will say will obviously change anything.